The Fantazia for consort of viols is one of the glories of English music, and this unique repoertoire, spreading over nearly two centuries, represents the loftiest and most perfect kind of instrumental chamber music written in Europe before the era of the classical string quartet. In his Fantazias for viol, the young Henry Purcell put into practice all he had absorbed in the course of his technical and stylistic training. These pieces are a perfect illustration of his avowed ambition to surpass all his contemporaries. Formed in 1986, Fretwork is a consort of viols based in the United Kingdom. The group's repertoire consists primarily of music of the Rensaissance period, in particular that of Elizabethan and Jacobean England, arrangements of the music of J.S. Bach and contemporary music written especially for them.
